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Breakfast Topic: What are you doing once you get your hands on the expansion?
It's nearly time! By this time tomorrow we can all have our hands on an official copy of the Burning Crusade. And once you've got the game box in your hands, what do you plan on doing? Rushing into Outland with your favorite level 60? Rerolling a new Draenei or Blood Elf? Inquiring minds want to know!
Six North American realms to open for BC
Blizzard has been telling us for a while that they will be launching new realms when the Burning Crusade hits (they'd be crazy not to). But what they haven't told us was how many, which kind, and most importantly, what their names will be. Haven't told us until now, that is. I present to you the following post from Drysc: We'll be launching the following six realms with the release of The Burning Crusade expansion on January 16, at 12:01 AM EST. Nagrand - PvE, Oceanic - Bloodlust battlegroup Velen - PvE, Pacific Coilfang - PvP, Pacific Terokkar - PvE, Central Exodar - PvE, Eastern Auchindoun - PvP, Eastern The majority of these realms will be placed in a new battlegroup, the name of which has yet to be announced. These are new non-transfer realms and as such the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj will be closed and they will not be open to character transfers for six months. Six realms seems a little skimpy to me; I think it's a safe bet that they'll be opening more either with the BC launch or shortly afterwards. The names follow the trend of BC-themed names that we saw with the European servers, which is cool. I like the new flavor they bring to my realm list. Speaking of the names, Drysc tells us that Auchindoun is pronounced "Aw-kin-dune." Good to know.Will you be rolling on one of these new servers when you get the expansion, or staying with your old home? Me, I could never leave Shadow Council, but I'm sentimental like that.
Faience's Adventures in Outland: It's the end of the world as we know it...
...and after my dozenth death, I'm not so sure that I feel fine. Sure, it started out all fun and games with Tyren's announcement on the forums that there might be some "cool events" on the beta realms this evening. But cool, I wonder, for whom? Certainly not for the poor denizens of the now ravaged Shattrath City -- the Outland's only major city. On the beta realm Hellfire, CMs Ordinn and Tseric orchestrated the destruction of this fine city, throwing wave after wave of bosses at the city's populace. Want to see what happens when the game's most dangerous monsters converge on a single city center? Well, read on to find out.
Faience's adventures in Outland: Elites? What elites?
I'm sure we're all familiar with the elite quests scattered throughout Azeroth. Or if not familiar with the particulars of each and every one of them, at least aware that there exists such a thing as quests that are flagged "elite" that involve killing more powerful "elite" monsters. Well, in the Burning Crusade you won't be seeing any of those. And, no it's not because Blizzard has decided to remove elites from the game. Instead, Blizzard has dropped the "elite" flag from quests and replaced it with a "group" flag, which I first noticed when questing on my new level 12 Blood Elf. Curious about the above Anok'suten quest, I located a partner and headed out to complete it immediately -- in the end it involved killing a single level 11 elite, surrounded by non-elites of around the same level. I might have been able to solo it -- but the suggested players hint is appreciated.And this trend continues into Outland -- only the elites are a bit bigger.
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Vote for day 7 winners!
We had a ton of excellent entries for the Alliance caption contest on day 7 of our countdown to the Burning Crusade, we've narrowed the field down to ten finalists -- and we want your help to pick the winner! You have 24 hours to submit your votes, which gives you until 5:30PM EST on Friday -- so get voting, everyone! Who's the winner of our Alliance caption contest? Darwf: May I help you? Night Elf: Uh yes, where's Stormwind? Crap, you're a guy. From far away you all look the same. Ok, I'm only gonna tell you this one more time. Dancing like Michael Jackson will *not* get you hot Night Elf chicks. Donald Trump brings his army of real estate to bear against an increasingly chunky Rosie O'Donnell. You are the Barry Bonds of dwarves! Hey, where the gnome women at? 1960 called, they want their overalls back. My name is Inigo Montoya. you stole my shoulder pads... prepare to die. Dwarf: Actually, I prefer to think of myself as 'in weapons range of your groin'. I wish I knew how to quit you. Free polls from Pollhost.com
Blizzard posts Burning Crusade FAQ
Well, this should cut down on forum spam. Blizzard his posted a pretty extensive FAQ on the ins and outs of installing BC, upgrading your account, et cetera. Points of interest include: What time will I be able to log in and play BC? You will be able to log in and play as soon as you have purchased your copy of the Burning Crusade, installed it, and activated your key. Many retailers will be open at midnight. Please check with your local store for more information. Will I need to install from the CD? Why? It will be necessary to have a Burning Crusade CD and a Burning Crusade authentication key in order to play The Burning Crusade expansion. There is content on the Burning Crusade CD that will need to be installed that was not included in the patches we recently released. Each account (in the event multiple are played by one person) will need its own copy of The Burning Crusade expansion to install the additional content, and be upgraded with the included authentication key. If I have the beta already, do I need to delete the beta and install fresh? When the game goes live, you will need to uninstall your beta client before installing the expansion. Use your computer's Add or Remove Programs function to remove it. If you do not see the beta listed there, just simply delete the Burning Crusade Closed Beta folder. Remember to back up any screenshots or UI settings that you may want to keep. The whole FAQ is reposted after the jump, for those of you reading from work.
Adventures in Beta: The Aldors and the Scryers
Get ready for the reputation grind of all reputation grinds. The Aldors and the Scryers are two competing factions in the Burning Crusade -- and they offer enough profession recipes that you just might want to do the grind twice. The Aldors and the Scryers both make their home in Shattrath City, the Orgrimmar/Ironforge of the Outlands. The Aldors are a group of Draenei priests, while the Scryers are Blood Elf magic-users. Both factions are helping the Naaru fight the Burning Legion, but they're also competing with each other for power. This has a nasty effect on you, the player, because completing quests for the Scryers will decrease your Aldor faction, and vice versa. It's kind of like the Magram and Gelkis centaur clans all over again, except this one actually matters.
Blue teeches u 2 Burning Croosaid (also CoH is being looked at)
Here's a couple of notes on what you need to do, once you've got your claws on a copy of the expansion, to play.First, don't delete the WoW-2.0.0-to-2.0.3 patch. Apparently BC needs this patch to install, which makes sense, since the expansion went gold long before 2.0.3 rolled out. From Nethaera: As the Burning Crusade expansion was finished prior to the most current patch versions it will be necessary to re-patch to 2.0.3 once the expansion is installed. As some players remove their patches after they have been applied we would like to provide a helpful warning not to delete the "2.0.0-to-2.0.3" patch file as it will be required after the Burning Crusade is installed.
European midnight launch events
And the Europe-themed news keeps on coming. The Blizzard Europe team will be having some events of their own to celebrate the expansion, with copies to sell and developers signing. Locations are as follows: UK: HMV 150 Oxford Street London W1D 1DJ Phone: 020 7631 3423 Doors open: 11:00PM, January 15 FRANCE: FNAC 74 Ave des Champs ElyséesParis 8e Phone: 0153 53 64 64 Doors open: 0:00 - 04:00, January 16 GERMANY: Media Markt 10627 Berlin-Charlottenburg Krumme Straße 48 Phone: 030 31992 0 On sale: 0:00, January 16 SWEDEN: EB Games Gallerian Hamngatan 37 Stockholm Phone: 08 411 21 51 Doors open: 0:00, January 16 WHEN: Monday, January 15/Tuesday January 16, 2007 | On Sale at 0:00 As much as I won't be going to California for the US events, the extent to which I won't be going to Europe is even greater. What about you guys? Any of these convenient for you?[via Kotaku]
Eight European realms to open on BC launch
Not satisfied by your free transfers, European readers? You want more realms? Prepare for your wish to be fulfilled! Thundgot (can I call him Thundy yet?) dropped the following bombshell of love this morning. At 00:01 on the 16th, eight (8) new English realms will be opening: Normal (PvE) Hellfire Ghostlands Nagrand RP The Sha'tar PvP Auchindoun Karazhan Shattered Halls RP PvP Sporeggar They'll be the usual non-transfer realms. As far as I can tell, the realm names are all expansion-themed, which seems fitting. Get those character names ready, folks!
Midnight launch event confirmed
We posted a few days ago to tell you that the Fry's in Anaheim were having a midnight event for the launch of the Burning Crusade, and now we have official confirmation. Blizzard will be celebrating, selling, and signing copies at four California locations: Fry's Fountain Valley (4500 copies available) Fry's Anaheim (4500 copies available) Fry's Sunnyvale (4500 copies available) Universal Citywalk Gamestop/EB Games (1500 copies available) Lining up at each of these locations begins at 6 AM on the 15th, and wristbands will be distributed to make sure you get your copy. More details, including store addresses, are available at Blizzard's page. I won't be making it out to my state of birth for this particular party, but I do plan on going to a midnight event at my local GameStop.So which of you are lucky and dedicated enough to be attending one of these shindigs?
Dell makes custom BC laptop; '70s want their art back
Apparently there was more than one keynote today (who knew?). Michael Dell at CES this morning decided to strike while the BC iron is hot and come up with a very limited edition (read: 2 made) M1710 laptop with some custom airbrushed WoW art on it. I can't find a better picture than this one; it looks like your standard Blood Elf vs. Draenei shot. Kotaku writes that these are to be auctioned off on eBay, though Dell's own site appears to claim that only one of them ever existed, and it was given away at the keynote at CES. Being a Mac person, I didn't really want one anyway. And that art is giving me flashbacks to the Janitor's epic mural in the latest Scrubs episode: "usually you have to go to a van convention" indeed. I'd link to Dell's page on this device, but it's buried in a horrendous Flash layout, and therefore seems to be unlinkable. If you really feel the need to subject yourself to it, click here and then click "M1710 Burning Crusade" when the Flash loads. [via Kotaku]Update: Engadget confirms that the 2 laptops will be "auctioned off to benefit World Harvest."
Around Azeroth Extra: Chaos at the Dark Portal
So you've probably heard there was this patch today, and with it some sort of world event involving the Dark Portal. But perhaps you're stuck at work, school, or somewhere else where you're forbidden to log on to check out the excitement. Well, Around Azeroth is here to help! This shot, courtesy of Flyv of the guild We Know on Eitrigg, shows you exactly what you're missing right now. And I only imagine the crowds will get worse as we hit into prime US playing time...Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.See more of your pics from Around Azeroth.
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Vote for day 6 winners!
While we had a lot of excellent entries for the caption contest on day 6 of our countdown to the Burning Crusade, we've narrowed the field down to ten finalists -- and we want you to pick the winner! You have 24 hours to submit your votes, which gives you until 2:30PM EST on Wednesday -- so get voting! Who's the winner of our Horde caption contest? Troll: "Take it easy on the booze Mankrik, it's wasn't your fault she died" Are those leftover Christmas M&Ms coming out of your forehead, or have I had too many Zimas? "You not LOOK twenty one..." On hearing the Horde would soon be flooded with Paladins, an orc consoles his troll friend: "My advice: start drinking heavily." "So you say your a girl IRL..." Unkthar failed, once again, to impress the ladies with his ability to play "Ride of the Valkyrie" on the bottles. "20 gold, same as downtown." "Sorry. Go to an Alliance bar if you want drinks with little unbrellas." "Do you like my barrels?" 6 bottles of troll sweat: 2 gold 3 barrels of Darkmoon Faire Reserve: 15 gold Getting drunk with some friends right before the raid starts: pricle Free polls from Pollhost.com
Faience's adventures in Outland: Welcome to the Cenarion Refuge
I've come through the Dark Portal and fought my way past legions of demons and inward through Hellfire Peninsula... all to get tired of the crowds and almost immediately relocate to the next zone over. That zone, Zangarmarsh, is everything Hellfire Peninsula is not, starting with the color palette. Immediately upon entering the zone, I found myself in Cenarion Refuge, a neutral faction that, no, does not care about that Cenarion Circle reputation you spent so long trying to gain.Lucky for all of us, then, that reputation is more easily gained these days...
Countdown to Burning Crusade: Day 5 winner
We've got a winner for the day 5's four little words contest who's going to be taking home a 60-day game card! For the win, we have:"Choose: Laid or Raid" by DarrenAnd our runners-up include:"Rock, Paper, Scissors, Warlock" by Ravenite"Virtual Characters. Real People." by GG"Kill How Many Boars?" by Noctem"ITS NOT ROCKET SURGERY!" by Unkle"I can quit anytime" by qwertyAnd remember -- you still have until 2PM EST today to get in your entry for day 8's screenshot contest -- so if you haven't already, be sure to mail yours in!
Faience's adventures in Outland: Of quests and bombing runs...
I admit -- I've been playing this game long enough to be a little bored. And not just this-is-my-three-hundred-and-fifty-second-Ragnaros-kill kind of bored, but that the standard quest types have started to loose interest. So many of these quests read like mad libs: kill <number> of <monster type> because of <very convincing reason> and return to me with their <personal item of some sort> as proof of your heroic deed. You will receive <amount> of gold and your choice of <really nifty items>. It doesn't encourage me to do more than skim the quest text. (Though if you do this, you occasionally miss some downright hilarious comments in the quest text.) If you could picture my typical encounter with a quest giver, I think it would go something like this... Quest giver: The Naga have been...Me: You want me to kill Naga?Quest giver: Yes, they're...Me: How many?Quest giver: If you'd thin their numbers by 30, then...Me: Great! Where are they?Quest giver: Around Umbrafen Lake, to the south.Me: What'll you give me for it?Quest giver: Well, I suppose two gold coins and some experience points.Me: Sounds perfect! I'll be right back.Quest giver: Wait! Don't you want to know why?Me (riding away): I'm sure they're all bad. But really, those experience points are all I need to know about!So I must admit that I'm a bit excited to encounter a few new types of quests, which are, to me, at least, tremendous amounts of fun. Want to know what I'm talking about? Keep reading!
Breakfast Topic: What do you expect on the 16th?
Looking forward to release day? A quick poll of the forums suggests that you wouldn't be the only one -- with plenty of players making big plans for the 16th. We've got people taking vacation days and skipping classes, but I have to wonder whether all this is worth it. After all, with so many players new and old planning on hitting up the Outland come release day, how many of you expect the realms to be stable at all, much less playable? So that's today's question -- what do you expect to see on release day? Has Blizzard done enough to lead to a smooth roll-out or are you more pessimistic of playability on the 16th?
Faience's adventures in Outland: Through the Dark Portal
Ah, Faience. A pink-haired Gnome warlock, Faience was my very first level 60 character. (And in full Nemesis, even a pink-haired Gnome can look a little intimidating.) I raided with her through Ahn'Qiraj before deciding I was exhausted of the raiding grind and re-rolled a Horde priest on another realm with the intent of playing more casually. Of course, with all of the recent warlock changes, I've got to wonder what I was thinking... Fortunately, in the Burning Crusade beta, where soling matters more to me than group utility, I've been able to dust off Faience -- renamed, uncreatively, Faiences on the beta realm -- and travel through the Outland. And, if you read on, you get to come along for the ride!
Nifty maps of Outland zones
Since this is the international year of the spy (2-007), and every spy needs reliable intelligence, I humbly present to you the following. Gnomeproblem.com has posted some lovely maps of 5 of the 7 Outland zones (they're missing Netherstorm and Shadowmoon Valley [thanks, Kaziel]). The maps include sub-zones, so you should have no trouble figuring out where exactly that quest secret mission is trying to send you to.In case you guys haven't noticed yet, by the way, you can now see Outland and its zones in the in-game map. I particularly like the furthest-zoomed-out map, with the demon and the white-haired guy. But what's that thing just to the left of Azeroth, with the propellor?[via Tobold's MMORPG Blog]
